


you say "get over here" and play a video game

by Moonrose001



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Alternate Universe - High School, Forbidden Love, I dont get it either, Jealousy, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-16
Updated: 2019-01-16
Packaged: 2019-10-10 23:37:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17435639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonrose001/pseuds/Moonrose001
Summary: “Somebody that doesn’t dare admit that they wear pink, shouldn’t be acting like this,” Shane passive-aggressively comments.“It’s salmon,” Ryan just as passive-aggressively corrects.“For fuck’s sake, Ryan,” Shane breaks out, pausing the game.“How exactly am I acting, then?” Ryan asks, his voice raising in octaves.“Jealous!”“I’m not – “Lightning strikes down and drowns out the rest of Ryan’s sentence.





	you say "get over here" and play a video game

**Author's Note:**

  * For [NumberNine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NumberNine/gifts).



> is my objective to steal as much lyric from lana del rey as possible? Do I need to update other projects? is this gift hella late anyways?   
> yes.
> 
> this is for nerbull, minding his own business, looking like a snack

The loading bar is halfway through when Ryan knocks on his door. Shane groans as he stands up, hoping that Ryan would’ve just come five minutes later so Shane could steal his turn. He walks to the door of his two-room apartment, grumbling at the impatient knocking. Ryan is wearing a baby pink hoodie and black, 3-stripes jogging pants. He looks soft and flushed in the misty afternoon, his hair a little wet and shiny with leftover gel.

”Geez, it’s fucking freezing outside,” he says as he pushes his way inside. ”Fucking Schaumberg.”

”Hey,” Shane protests, more out of habit than anything.

Ryan ignores him as he pulls his shoes off, and steps into the apartment. ”In here isn’t a lot better,” he keeps complaining.

”Pay me and that could change,” Shane replies.

Ryan only flashes him a sharp grin, teeth too big for his mouth and they settle down on couch.

”You want to start?” Shane tentatively offers.

”Nah, you go ahead,” Ryan says, sniffing, and squeezes his cold feet underneath Shane’s thigh. Shane picks up the controller, already resenting how the cool and hard plastic was going to feel in-between his hands in a few hours.

\----

Ayani is very displeased. He thought he had a handle on the situation for once, but that would be too easy, wouldn’t it. There’s a reason why the otters were his father’s favorite, and that wasn’t for their obedient behavior.

He swims through the cold waters, and allows himself to drift. Unlike his siblings, he never doubted that he belonged in the sea. He never even had a rebel phase.

Being the son of Susanoo nobody really believed that, and Ayani was fine with that, even though he could feel a little boring sometimes. The waters are dark but clear, and the seaweed move the same way his own long black hair waves. Few fish swim at this point of the day, just on the dark side of twilight.

He twirls and watches his bare feet as they move through the waters stronger than any human’s could. Not for the first time he wonders why he looks so much like the humans living on the coast, and yet was nothing like them.

Something rushes behind him, and he swirls around again. The sun is still out, and so it’s easy to catch the blurry green ray shoot through the waters.

“Yamata?” Ayani calls out. He sure hopes it isn’t. The only thing Yamata was afraid of was Susanoo and Susanoo was at the colder waters at the moment, hiding from his sister in a place where the sun barely touched the land.

Ayani blinks quickly. His haori is floating around him, bright and easy to spot, even with the dark green hakama underneath.

He can feel the 8-tailed giant snake’s eyes on him, and Ayani barely has time to think, before the violent serpent hits him and the waters turn cold.

\----

“I don’t know, man,” Shane sighs, passing the controller. His eyes are dry by now, but the atmospheric soundtrack of the game has done what it was supposed to, and he has goose bumps on his arms and back after the nerve-wrecking sewer level his character just passed through. “Sara is cute.”

“Oh?” Ryan says, sounding very opinioned and completely casual at the same time.

“She thinks your sweater is nice,” Shane adds. “Not a lot of boys wear pink, she said.”

“It’s salmon,” Ryan corrects, even though he’s been a lot braver about wearing the sweatshirt lately. They’re silent for a while as the character fights their way through the remaining hallways and through a manhole with the simple ease of Ryan having played this game before.

“Do you like her?” Shane asks, and it’s such a new question and such an ancient one at once.

“I thought _you_ liked her?” Ryan asks.

Shane makes a face. “She’s nice.”

\-----

Yamata spits Ayani out somewhere in the far north. It’s an island close to the Northern Lights, made out of tundra, mountains and waterfalls, and after having been dragged by the robe for 3 days straight, it’s the best thing Ayani has ever seen. He hurries on land, his skin changing as his toes make contact with rock. He sees Yamata’s back as it dives back into the cold waters, and Ayani backs away. As he inhales, he feels his eyes shrink to accommodate the sun.

He wanders away from the beach, hearing Yamata sing gleefully in the water, daring him to come back and go for another round. But that would be ridiculous, considering that Susanoo is so close by. Ayani’s father must be sensing Yamata at this point. If Ayani is lucky, Susanoo will take care of this for him.

Ayani is throwing a last glance over his shoulder, feet dipping down on wet moss, when he sees him.

\-----

At school, Shane invites Sara out for coffee, and Ryan listens to the conversation while making notes for class.

\-----

The figure, resting in the duvet of green grass and colorful flowers, has big violet eyes and wavy hair that runs down their shoulders the same shade of raw honey. Ayani stops, looking at the figure for a second, before he forces himself to relax. He’s human-looking at the moment, and even if he wasn’t, a human would still be stupid to pick a fight with him.

The person has an odd aura to them though, and the flowers are growing on their body like it’s a garden of topsoil. As Ayani moves closer, he realizes that the person is a man, tall and broad-shouldered. He looks soft and muscular at the same time, his lungs moving his chest slow and easy.  

The man looks at him, his purple eyes calm and curious for a minute, before they glaze over.

Around them, the flowers sag with relief.

\-----

Ryan and Shane always had a weird bond. Shane came from Schaumburg, born and raised, but rather than going to the local high school, he decided to go to a fancy artsy one and you could tell by his style. He’s tall and delicate like a baby tree, but always succeeded in coming off as brooding rather than awkward, despite only being 19 years of age.

Ryan was a California kid, used to sunny beaches and Disney Land, but for some reason he chose to take a scholarship in Illinois at the same fancy high school. They met there, and nobody would have guessed that the high-energy frantic vibe of one Ryan Bergara would click with the absent, but pleasant energy of Shane Madej, but it did. They shared a lot of classes, and didn’t talk to each other in the beginning, but in second year Shane made the mistake of saying a shark was cooler than a bear to the wrath of Bergara. Since then they slotted together like magnets finally getting close enough to do so, and thus the school named them Bunny and Cloud.

In the beginning, Ryan was weird about it. He was weird about hugs and sharing a bottle of water and taking the controller while it was still warm. At some point though, Ryan could hug Shane without it being a Thing; he just had to clap Shane’s back while they were doing it. At some point he bought the pink sweater, and at some point he actually started wearing it outside for others to see.

But most days, it was like this; a long night with beer and x-box and Ryan sleeping on the couch, only for them to wake up and watch horror movies. The scent of Ryan has stained the living room at this point, and Shane doesn’t open the windows even when the wet bottoms of their cereals bowls have become dry.

\----

Ayani stays there, staring intently at the figure. The figure appears to have decided not to pay him anymore attention, and the flowers are once again swaying in the ocean wind. Ayani feels kind of dumb, but doesn’t comment too much on it. He slides down on his knees, and gets comfortable.

\----

“So you and Sara, huh?” Ryan asks as he sits down. Shane has already un-paused the game after having opened the door, and is nodding a little before he hears the question.

“What about us?” he asks, but his throat feels oddly dry.

“She seems nice, man.”

It starts to rain outside, and the silence is too stifling, and Shane clears his throat and says: “It’s not like that, Ryan.”

He doesn’t know why he says that. He shouldn’t have to explain himself.

Ryan’s voice is put-upon joking, when he replies: “Sure, man.”

\----

After some time when Yamata hasn’t showed any signs of leaving, Ayani tires of being ignored and asks: “Who are you?”

The flowers immediately start to whisper among themselves, but the figure looks at Ayani again.

“My name is Flosene,” the figure answers after what feels like an eternity.

“And what does that mean?” Ayani impatiently asks. “How do you spell it?”

Flosene blinks slowly at him. “I don’t know how to spell it,” he says. “But I know it means old flower.”

“Why?”

Flosene pauses. “I am son of Aphrodite, bastard of Ares,” he says.

The flowers twist in unease.

“I am son of Susanoo,” Ayani says, lifting his chin. He didn’t expect for a deity so far away to know about Susanoo’s bad reputation, but in case he did, Ayani wasn’t going to be ashamed.

“The God of Storms?” Flosene drawls. “I’ve seen him pass through a couple of times. Ruined spring, really.”

“What do you mean?” Ayani asks.

“I’ve been here, for a while, waiting for the flowers to blossom,” Flosene explains. “They have a hard time growing this far north, but when they do, they have the kindest smiles and the softest of hearts.”

Ayani looks at the flowers. He doesn’t see any mouths and as far as he recalls, flowers don’t have any hearts. But he didn’t really grow up with flowers, so what did he know.

“Have you waited for very long?” Ayani asks, looking at the spider web of roots growing on Flosene’s chest.

“I’ve lost track of time,” the god says. “The sun works very funny over here.”

\----

Shane always thought nobody noticed. Didn’t notice how carefully he never got into fights after that one time he sent three boys to the hospital with hardly a scratch on him. He thought nobody noticed the way flowers seemed to straighten when he entered a room, and how he couldn’t kill any plant even after having neglected them for months. But he met Ryan, and immediately after having met him, he realized that Ryan knew.

\----

“Do you need help sitting up?” Ayani politely inquires.

“No,” Flosene says, but stays laying down, which Ayani thinks is pretty rude.

Eventually, Ayani crawls forwards and grabs Flosene’s wrist. Flosene gasps, and electricity pulses into Ayani’s hand, a heavy scent of musk and flowers hitting Ayani in the face. He blinks in disorientation, surprised at how his heart seems to throb and his body seems to heat up.

He looks down, and Flosene’s cheeks are flushed, his eyes blushing into the shade of wine berries.

Without saying anything, Ayani pulls Flosene up.

\----

“I’m serious, Ryan,” Shane says. “Besides, I thought you said you liked her?”

\----

They stay on the island and Ayani doesn’t keep track of how long. He just knows that the sun never quite goes down, and he talks. He talks about Yamata that is swimming threateningly around the island at all times. He talks about his father, his trickery and his aunt. Flosene hasn’t heard much of any of them. He grew up on a mountain, he decided to leave when he realized that there would never be space for a bastard.

Flosene is a god of contractions. He’s a son of Ares, and wrath flows in his veins like liquid metal. It makes Yamata afraid of him, and it makes Flosene afraid of himself. Ayani should also be afraid, and yet he isn’t.

Every time Ayani talks, Flosene does nothing but listen, but the flowers sway their crowns, as if they’re tilting their head in wonder. To them, liquid iron doesn’t stop Flosene from being the gentlest man they’ve ever known.

\----

The weather broadcast promised clear skies but the rain is falling heavy now, the faint drumming of thunder in the distance, moving rapidly closer.

Shane closes his eyes, and remembers how the sea pulsed with Ryan that day they walked on the beach. He faintly remembers the image of a dragon head, dead. He remembers a body on the beach, pink and dark green robes, fallen at the hands of the god of war.

“Ryan,” Shane pleads.

\----

At some point the days get shorter, and flowers are growing around Ayani’s thighs. He sighs as he leans his back into Flosene’s chest. Flosene’s fingers have thorns on them, but the pain as they tear at flesh is not bad. It’s not bad, when Flosene climbs onto Ayani’s lap. It’s not bad when the flowers sigh with pleasure. Storms are coming in as Flosene turns Ayani’s blood into seeds and vines, as fire pulses in Ayani’s chest like a hearth. Flosene sings and Ayani’s body sings with him.

He spreads his legs on the cold lands, and he lets Flosene take and take. The scent of flowers is heavy in his nose, pollen coloring his eyelashes, and lights flickers over his closed eyelids as the sun fights the clouds, as the earth gently starts to hum, as the lava underneath the earth bubbles in wrath. Flosene is a son of love and lust, a son of fire and wrath, and Ayani crumbles in between his hands. The sea twirls around their island as Ayani’s fingers dig into the earth, as he finds the flowers that Flosene has not yet grown. Flosene blows them into his lungs, and whispers them into his ears. The clouds win and lightning cracks down.

They should’ve known that the gods would notice that.

\----

“Somebody that doesn’t dare admit that they wear pink, shouldn’t be acting like this,” Shane passive-aggressively comments.

“It’s salmon,” Ryan just as passive-aggressively corrects.

“For fuck’s sake, Ryan,” Shane breaks out, pausing the game.

“How exactly am I acting, then?” Ryan asks, his voice raising in octaves.

“Jealous!”

“I’m not – “

Lightning strikes down and drowns out the rest of Ryan’s sentence.  

\----

Leaving isn’t important anymore. Ayani gets used to his head resting on Flosene’s lap, and looking at the rainbow clouds as it twirls in weird patterns he hasn’t seen before. He loses the band for his hair, so Flosene’s fingers can comb through his locks and for each day that passes, a flower removes itself from Flosene’s body, so there’s more for Ayani to touch.

Something changes around them; something some might even call big. But it feels so vague and out of Ayani’s existence. The clouds haven’t left for days, and Ayani hasn’t seen a sunset for a while.

And then suddenly one day the sound of the flowers giggling and whispering, a language that Ayani still hasn’t come to understand, suddenly goes quiet.

A flaming ball pierces through the clouds, and Susanoo is there. He’s looking at them, blue eyes like frozen ice, hair going to all sides.

Ayani finds himself tensing in a way his body had almost forgotten. The scent of salt becomes harsh and mean in his nostrils, and then the veils of clouds that’s been hiding the sun start to swirl, as if somebody dipped in a spoon and started twirling.

Flosene doesn’t tense, but his hand reaches out and their fingers knot together. The clouds turn from white to dark grey.

\----

It’s been quiet for a while now. Shane went to heat up some noodles, but Ryan hasn’t left yet. He’s replaying some tutorial level, his grip tight on the controller. Shane stays at the door, holding their noodles as the sound of the game plays loudly. The living room is dark except for the light from the screen, the training level’s sun bright and clear. The character is doing their odd tripping as they wait to be moved forward. They don’t, but Ryan doesn’t look up to meet Shane’s eyes.

\----

Susanoo rushes onto the island like a tsunami. The clouds rumble as he strikes through the landscape, and suddenly he’s in front of Ayani.

“What have you done,” he mutters as he grabs Ayani’s arm and with one single tug rips Ayani’s body off Flosene. The flowers around Ayani’s thighs die, but they don’t scream.

Ayani feels very cold all of a sudden.

“Father, no,” Ayani shouts, digging his heels into the ground. “I don’t want to leave. I want to stay here with Flosene.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Susanoo says, and Ayani tries to turn his head to look at Flosene, but his father grabs him around the neck like Ayani is a dog. “You’re interfering with the planes. We’re not supposed to interact with other celestials.”

“Father, no, wait – “

“Stop _arguing_.”

“Father!” Ayani cries out, and lighting strikes down in the horizon. The earth shakes as the ground cracks.

Susanoo slowly turns and looks at Ayani, his eyes gradually growing wider. Ayani can feel sparks coming off from his skin, his eyes growing big with energy, but mostly he feels upset and torn up.

“Ayani,” Susanoo whispers.

Ayani is shaking so hard, and his voice is wet, when he says: “He’s the one that I want.”

\---

Ryan grabs the remote, and mutes the TV. The noodles in Shane’s hands have gone cold by now. Ryan looks up, and his eyes are glassy, his expression loose and numb and so, so vulnerable.

“You don’t know what you do to me,” he whispers.

And for the first time in this life, but definitely not for the first time, Shane feels every cell in his body fall in love with Ryan.

\----

Susanoo takes Ayani back to sea. Ayani floats, motionless, after Susanoo first took away comfort, then resilience, then a choice. Susanoo leaves him somewhere in the warmer waters, leaving it up for the ocean to heal him. Ayani closes his eyes, and he thinks it’s all over for a moment. He closes his eyes, and as he forgets, he can feel the water boiling in wrath. It takes a moment for him to realize that it isn’t his own.

\----

“Nothing is going on with Sara, Ryan,” Shane whispers, as he kneels in front of Ryan.

\----

When Ayani gets there, he witnesses Flosene feel rage for the first time. His eyes are yellow and pulsing, his figure cracking with the pressure. Earth is melting underneath his knees as he kneels, chains binding his hands and feet. He looks up in defiance as a sword is held gingerly at his neck. A sword held by his own father.

Ayani attacks and Flosene blazes.

Ayani was never boring. He just never had anything to fight for.

\-----

Ryan lowers his eyes as Shane puts his hands on his cheeks. Outside the clouds are laughing.

\----

The story is long. In the end, Flosene and Ayani realizes that co-existing created a third plane that was interacting with the other gods’ planes. That Susanoo and Zeus can’t exist at the same time, the same place, because they were the same thing, just at different times, just in different forms.

If Ayani and Flosene had been smarter, they would’ve left each other. They would’ve noticed how their worlds started leaking. Ayani would’ve stayed in the sea after his father punished him, and Flosene would’ve let himself be executed, and become part of the flowers he so badly wanted to be. They would no longer love, but they would live.

But that’s not what happens. Flosene calls the fire and the ground crumbles. Ayani attacks, and blew the remains away.

It didn’t matter that Ares ended up killing Ayani, or that Flosene died with him. In the end there were no planes for anyone to exist anyway.

\----

In the end, it doesn’t matter if they made the ground crumble. If their deaths created islands. If the flowers sang for them every year.

What gods did in another life is unimportant.

Shane is just a boy. Ryan is just a boy. They’re just boys playing video games.

 

**Author's Note:**

> let me know what you think


End file.
